Learning is a collaborative venture. The more we can provide opportunities for our students to think, collaborate and learn from each other – the more we are preparing them for their futures!

Do you use the strategy Think-Pair-Share in your classroom? The Think-Pair-Share strategy is a three-step collaborative learning structure developed by Dr. Frank Lyman in 1981. It is a relatively low-risk and is ideally suited for instructors and students who are new to collaborative learning. Each component is equally important in the process and shouldn’t be short-changed.

The General Strategy: Think-Pair-Share –

Teacher asks a question or provides a prompt.

Students are given time to THINK about their responses.

Students PAIR up and discuss their responses.

Student pairs SHARE their ideas with a larger group.

Do you want to spice it up with additional variations?

The strategy Think-Pair-Share, along with a variety of twists, is a versatile strategy that can be used before, during or after a reading, viewing or listening activity. It incorporates elements of strategies that are known to increase learning (summarizing, comparing/contrasting, restating an idea, collaboration, think time, and using different learning modalities).

Fran McVeigh challenged me in my last blog post, Check for Understanding, to think in terms of no-tech and tech variations. I have included some tech variations at the end of this blog. I would love to hear other ideas in the comment section!

NO-TECH VARIATIONS

Think-Pair-Share (Listen) – When student are sharing ideas with their partner remind them to listen to their partner’s ideas. When groups are asked to share, students share the idea of their partner – not their own.

Think-Pair-Square – Students share with two other students after they have completed Think-Pair-Share (4-square).

Think-Pair-Pod-Share – A “Pod” is a sharing with a small group (a table group) – prior to sharing with the whole group. Students first share with a partner. Then bring all thoughts together as a table (pod) prior to sharing out with whole group.

Think-Write/Draw-Share – Students write or draw their own ideas before they pair up to discuss them with a partner. This allows students to more fully develop their own ideas before sharing.

Think-Pair-Share (reading strategies) – During “think” part students are asked to think in terms of summarizing, questioning, predicting, visualizing.

Once students understand all four of these areas, groups can be asked to use a variety in a single “think-pair-share”. (One (or more) groups summarize, one (or more) groups visualize, etc…)

Think-Pair-Share (various perspectives) – After posing a question, ask pairs to “think” in terms of a different perspective.

The Today’s Meet back channel could be Tweeted out by teacher to include global sharing and perspectives.

Think-Text-Share - If students are allowed to use cell phones in class, rather than verbally pairing their ideas they could text each other. Then share with full group.

Think-Pair-Wordle-Share – Teacher posses a question such as what are all the words you can think of to describe _____________. (character in book, historical figure, etc…) Students think individually, then share ideas with partner to develop one Wordle between the two of them. Then share with group.

Think-Blog-Respond-

Student begins by thinking of blog post ideas

Student creates his/her own post

Reader responds

The post becomes the “pair” on a much larger scale. Another aspect of the “pair” is that a blog post is meant to be read by another person. The author’s ideas are shared through the post. When the reader responds, this is yet another venue for sharing understanding with the writer.

The above has served as some food for thought. I would love to hear from you if you try any of these variations in your classroom. Do you have other ideas to share with the global community? When our ideas come together, we all become stronger. Our students benefit greatly from our online THINKING, PAIRING and SHARING!

Titanpad is a free, online resource, similar to Today’s Meet, but each user/team can enter text anywhere on the page and select a highlight color to indicate their input. At the end, you can save a finished product that resembles a Word document. It can come in handy for group note taking, but I also like to use it for when groups collaborate or for jigsaw-type activities.

Learning is Growing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.